The high incidence of head and neck injuries in football continues to exact a high price on the health and well-being of high school, college and professional players. Similar head and neck injuries are noteworthy in other sports, such as skiing. In the prior art (FIG. 1) the player wears a heavy padded helmet. Although the helmet is well padded, high levels of impact to the head continue to result in blunt force trauma, whiplash and high levels of neck strain at all age levels of football participation. These injuries also have had long term effects on aging football players.
The proposed embodiment can significantly reduce these injuries by means of an improved helmet and helmet extension design and energy absorption system that will reduce head and neck trauma without restricting player visibility or head position. This embodiment incorporates an extension at the rear center of the helmet which is coupled to a shoulder harness or existing football type shoulder pads. There are three principle components to the design: The fixed-in-place helmet which does not contact the head; the flexible extension; and the shoulder pads or shoulder harness worn by the player; The flexible extension is connected to both the helmet and the shoulder pads. The invention provides an energy absorption/redistribution-shape-recoverable system which limits head deflection upon impact. The helmet extension is designed to reduce head deflection and absorb impact energy from all directions of force. The invention will significantly reduce the whiplash effect of the brain within the skull, reduce blunt force trauma, and also prevent neck injury.
The flexible and semi rigid extension is designed to transfer impact force from any direction into a shoulder pad bracket and then to the player through the pads. The extension will bend to a degree within the elastic property range of the material and section modulus, and recover to its original shape. Impact forces to the head and neck will be absorbed and attenuated by the fixed helmet, and the helmet extension simultaneously and then transferred through the helmet extension into the shoulder harness bracket and finally fully attenuated through the body of the player. This absorption and redistribution of force will reduce head and neck movement thereby decreasing the potential for whiplash of the brain within the skull and also reduce the effect of blunt force trauma to the head. Rotational head movement within the fixed helmet will not be restricted and an open helmet design permits visibility in all directions. In addition, the head will not be burdened with the additional weight of the helmet thereby decreasing the inertial momentum force upon the head and neck during impact.
Production-ready materials are available to implement this embodiment. Processional football helmet exteriors are most often fabricated of tough high impact resistant polycarbonate plastic (tensile strength=6,000 psi; modulus=300,000 psi); youth football and safety helmets are constructed of acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS). These materials have good impact and strength properties and can survive repeated blows without damage. The crown area of some football helmets are constructed of vinyl nitrile. A co-polymer colyene (85% polypropylene/15% polyethylene); (tensile strength=4,000 psi; modulus=195,000 psi) is used to fabricate leg braces and prosthetics. All these materials are readily available, easily formable and have good impact resistance, tensile/flexure strength, and modulus properties over a wide range. These materials can be analytically screened for effective performance using three dimensional finite element analysis for the embodiment described and the best candidates would be further evaluated in laboratory prototype impact testing.